The Israeli army announced on Wednesday April 24 that it was carrying out “offensive action” in southern Lebanon, where it claimed that its air force and artillery struck forty Lebanese Hezbollah targets and killed half of its commanders in this sector.
“Troops are deployed in large numbers on the border, and the armed forces are currently carrying out offensive actions throughout southern Lebanon,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said in a statement.
“Half of Hezbollah commanders in southern Lebanon have been eliminated, the other half is in hiding and leaving the field open for Israeli military operations. It is not immediately possible to determine whether Israeli ground troops have entered Lebanese territory. The Lebanese pro-Iranian movement has not yet reacted to the Israeli statements.
Several cities affected
“Recently, Israeli warplanes and artillery struck around forty Hezbollah terrorist targets” around Aita El-Shaab in southern Lebanon, including weapons storage sites, he said. the Israeli army said earlier in a statement. Hezbollah “has established dozens of terrorist assets and infrastructure in the region” to attack Israel, she added.
The official Lebanese agency ANI reported, for its part, at least thirteen Israeli strikes near Aïta El-Chaab. “Israeli military aircraft carried out more than thirteen airstrikes targeting the outskirts of the towns of Aita El-Shaab, Ramyeh, Jabal Blat and Khallet Warda,” the agency said.
Hezbollah announced on Tuesday that it had fired dozens of rockets into northern Israel, in retaliation for the death of two civilians in southern Lebanon in a strike attributed to the Jewish state. Since October 7, 2023, this violence between Hezbollah and Israel has caused 380 deaths on the Lebanese side, the majority of fighters from the Lebanese movement, as well as 72 civilians, according to an AFP count. In northern Israel, eleven soldiers and eight civilians were killed, according to the army.
